John Gale wins First 2015 WSOP Bracelet for Brits

It’s been a sad year for British poker, with the passing of Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott. However, John Gale has now given Brits something to cheer about with his victory at the 2015 WSOP.

Gale, who’s amassed over $3.6 million in poker winnings, topped a giant field of 1,791 players to win the $1,000 Turbo Hold’em event. He scooped a $298,290 payout along with his second-career gold bracelet. His first bracelet win came in a 2006 WSOP $2,500 PL Hold’em tournament ($374,849). “It is still incredible,” Gale said after the victory. “I cannot believe it, I am over the moon.”

Interestingly enough, Gale has not played much poker at the WSOP over the past few years. In fact, he hadn’t cashed in a WSOP tournament since 2007. But that’s definitely changed for the 61-year-old retiree, who now has two cashes through the first 18 events of the 2015 WSOP.

Now that Gale has won a bracelet for the Brits, it’ll be interesting to see if they can keep adding to this total. Last year saw England win just one bracelet (John Kabbaj, O8/Stud 8 event), which is strange when considering that they’ve won 31 total bracelets in WSOP history.

As for the Turbo Hold’em tournament, this event featured 30-minute blind levels on Day 1 and 40-minute blind levels on Day 2. This made for a quicker structure than live players are used to, but it also created some really quick action as well. This Turbo Hold’em event was preceded by a Hyper Hold’em tourney that had an even faster structure at 20-minute levels.